Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current
Dan Daly
Assistant Professor Dan Daly's "Arborlogues: A Botanical Recital Performed for One Tree," created with actor and theatre-maker Lee LeBreton, was included in the Performance Arcade, an award-winning live art and music festival in Wellington, New Zealand. Performances took place Feb. 20-23, 2025.
Also earlier this year, Daly and fellow members of the National Queer Theater collective won an OBIE award for the Criminal Queerness Festival, which spotlights queer and trans plays from countries where queer art is criminalized or censored. See founder Adam Odsess-Rubin's acceptance speech on YouTube.
And that's not the only way Daly and National Queer Theater have been fighting the good fight on behalf of queer and trans playwrights: They are also parties to a lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts' implementation of Executive Order 14168, which bans federal grants to organizations that promote "gender ideology." An injunctive hearing was held in March 2025 at the Providence Federal Court in Rhode Island, and Daly represented the collective at the hearing. Read more about it in the New York Times and the Rhode Island Current.
Photo by Caio Gallucci
Travis McHale
Lecturer Travis McHale served as the lighting designer for a production of "Meninas Malvadas" ("Mean Girls") at Teatro Santander in São Paulo, Brazil, which premiered March 13 and runs through June 29. Inspired by the 2018-2020 Broadway production of "Mean Girls," the play is based on the iconic 2004 movie written by Tina Fey. Read more about the production in this story by CNN Brasil.
Brittany Proia
Theatre Arts lecturer Brittany Proia and her husband, Noel Carey, welcomed a new baby boy this semester! Cosmo Proia Carey was born on March 9 at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. Proia reports that she and Carey are "very tired, but very smitten." Congratulations, mom and dad—and welcome to the world, Cosmo!
Joel Sherry
Technical director Joel Sherry presented his multi-media installation, "Restless Corners," at the Percy Grainger Home and Studio in White Plains, NY, throughout the month of April—including an opening reception April 6; lunchtime tours on April 9, 23, and 30; and an artist tour on April 27.
According to the Percy Grainger Society website, "Restless Corners" is "a series of sculptural video objects placed throughout the Percy Grainger house. Inspired by both the building and Grainger's life, the works incorporate performance, sound, photography, drawing, found objects and Percy Grainger's own musical compositions. The sculptures integrate reclaimed monitors and projectors using video played in an atmosphere of looping movement, light and sound. The exhibition explores how individuals move through space, impacting the environment and objects of that space, leaving traces of our brief time, creating an imprint on the physical presence of space."
Learn more on the Percy Grainger Society's website.
Andrea Varga
Associate Professor Andrea Varga has recently become involved with the Hudson Valley Textile Project, and was in attendance for the group's eighth annual summit in Kingston, NY this past April. Varga reports that the project is "eager for educators, schools and students to be engaged with our local fibershed economy. Students are key to the success of this work."
"We are in a perfect location to be a part of this exciting and vibrant movement, and while I know we are all feeling 'at capacity,' I am certainly enlivened by the potential for growth and the opportunities for our students," says Varga.
Additionally, Varga was a recent recipient of the Faculty Development Center's Teaching Innovation Awards. According to the FDC, "up to $200 each for teaching materials/training/support, along with recognition and a certificate, will be given to faculty members for new (to them) teaching innovations tried out during the 2024-25 academic year." Varga presented her ideas alongside other awardees at the FDC on April 4.
